For Essie

[lycanprofessor]

Washington Jones always held office hours over the holidays, even if most of his students were away. The fact that he had a full Thanksgiving dinner all weekend in his office usually helped draw in a few lone students who both needed additional help and also didn't have a family of their own they could or wanted to spend the holiday with. It was Wash's way of trying to provide a community, a pack, to his students.

He would have even been there working late except that tonight he had somewhere important to be; a date with Essie Wakewood. It wasn't an official sort of date, more just a meeting between two people over drinks. Not that he would have minded if it was more, Miss Wakewood was a fine looking young woman with a bit of fire in her, but it was just professional between them.

Tonight he at least had some exciting news to share with her. Potentially exciting news at least, if the letters that his friend from the university in New York were actually from her family. Washington hoped that they were, just because Miss Wakewood seemed so desperate to find something on the Wakewoods. Truth be told, Washtington was curious too now. It was hard for a wolf to give up a hunt once he was on it.

Pulling his motorcycle up to where they'd planned to meet he smoothed down his shirt before he headed inside. He was running just a bit late and hoped that she hadn't been waiting too long.

Comments

[wakingwakewood]

Essie had taken a seat at a small booth near the back, but where she could see the door. She'd changed her clothes almost half a dozen times before leaving home, chiding herself each time she'd done it. It wasn't a date... not exactly. But even if it were, she always reminded herself that she wasn't in a relationship, not really. She could date. Whatever it was between her and Bach, it wasn't a relationship, not like that despite their occasional... dalliances.

And this really was supposed to be about business, not like her, again, not exclusive, flings with Will Cabot. Wash had been a great resource, now that she was researching her family again. Now that other things were at least reaching a constant so she could devote some time to it. He deserved a drink at the very least for the effort he was putting in on her behalf.

Seeing him enter, she leaned out of the boot a bit and waved so he'd see her. The day after Thanksgiving, it was pretty empty, which suited her just fine. She tried not to notice how nice he looked while she fiddled with the hem of the skirt she was wearing.

[lycanprofessor]

Washington smiled and waved back at Essie, though he could have found her by scent alone in the nearly empty place. Being closer to his Wolf form than most his senses were especially keen and Essie smelled, for lack of a better word, delicious. She looked just as good, Washington unable to help his pupils widening at the sight of her, that animalistic hunter in him never completely gone.

"I hope you weren't waiting long, Miss Wakewood," he said, sliding his bing frame into the seat across from her. "I had to deal with a small student emergency."

[wakingwakewood]

"Oh, no, don't worry about it. I haven't been here long." There was plenty of room on the small table, but she still moved her glass of wine aside, more for something to do than anything else.

"You're doing me the favor, after all, and please, call me Essie. I mean it this time. "Miss Wakewood" makes me feel like you're my lawyer." And that was hardly the case. If there was one thing she didn't want her lawyers involved in, it was this, her family research. That was as personal as it got.

[lycanprofessor]

"Alright, Essie. Some old habits just die hard. Especially when they've been thumped into you by your Nan," he said with a smile. He could still practically feel her cuffing him upside the head whenever he didn't show proper respect and good manners. But Washington knew that it would be more offensive to inside on calling Essie "Miss Wakewood" at this point.

"And I'm glad to help. Finding information about your family here is a fun challenge and... well, you know what they say about a dog after a bone and it's even worse with wolves."

[wakingwakewood]

"Sounds like Grandy. He was a stickler for manners. We lived in a falling down place in the middle of the woods, but if I didn't mind my manners the world would end. Just stop. So in the interest of manners," Essie smiled and waved towards a nearby waitress. "May I order you a drink?"

She thought about making a comment regarding the wolf thing, but she lived with a siren so knowing that there were actual werewolves in town was... just another thing. Still, it made her curious. Especially in regards to handsome college professors. But she kept telling herself that this wasn't that kind of meeting, even if she was wearing a shorter-than-probably-appropriate skirt with a definitely too-tight sweater.

[lycanprofessor]

"As Jane Austen said, 'Respect for right conduct is felt by everybody. Of course, to hear my Nan tell it she was the one that taught Emily Post good manners.,'" Washington said, unable to resist slipping in a historical quote when it was appropriate. Essie's Grandy sounded like the sort of man it would have been interesting to meet. It was easy to see that he had meant a lot to Essie. "And I'll take another of whatever you're drinking so long as you let me buy the next round."

Washington would be more than happy to stay and have as many drinks as Essie would like. As a werewolf he had a much higher tolerance for alcohol than a human so he would be fine to drive both of them home if necessary. Essie on the back of his motorcycle in that short skirt was an interesting mental image.

[wakingwakewood]

Placing the order, Essie turned her attention back to Washington. An easy thing to do considering the circumstances. She had picked this place for a reason, quiet, private, and she knew most of the staff having become a regular over the last few years in town. They were, on top of everything else, discrete and she knew the meeting wouldn't generate any rumors.

Not that she was worried about that, reminding herself, again, that she was a free agent.

"You will not buy the next round. I don't even know how much time you've been spending on my little project, but I know time isn't cheap. Or are you afraid to have a girl buy you drinks?" She tilted her head and gave him a smirk.

[lycanprofessor]

"If I was that concerned about money I wouldn't have become a professor. And it's mostly calling in favors. As for being afraid... is there something scary about letting you buy me drinks?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. If she was implying that this meeting was more than just professional... well then that was interesting. "Do I need to be on my guard against you, Essie?"

[wakingwakewood]

"Only if you're scared of witches. It's the eternal coin flip. Good witch? Bad witch? Little bit of both? Have a preference?" Taking a sip of her drink, she chuckled and raised her hand in surrender, realizing she had taken it somewhere she shouldn't. "Sorry, I didn't bring you here for..." Essie couldn't even think of the word she wanted to use. Flirt? Seduce? Tease? She realized she was blushing and covered her face for a moment. What the hell was wrong with her?

"Let me try that again, a little more professionally this time since this was supposed to be a business-like meeting. I asked you here, I'd like to pay for your drinks. Or I'm going to end up owing you favors."

[lycanprofessor]

"Oh, I definitely like at least a little bit of bad," he said, giving a low chuckle both at her question and her flush of embarrassment. Washington definitely didn't mind if she had brought him here for... whatever it was she was going to imply. Maybe he had come here for a little bit of that too. "And just because we didn't come here for that doesn't mean we can't change our minds."

Of course, if she wasn't comfortable with that it was fine as well. Washington didn't want to pressure her but he definitely wanted to let her know that he was interested.

"And alright, I'll let you buy me drinks so that we don't owe any favors."

[wakingwakewood]

Essie liked the idea of changing her mind. She only wished what she wanted to change it to, because that was the conundrum of the evening, wasn't it. However, for the time being, she shifted her focus a bit, running her finger along the rim of her glass and thanking the waiter as he brought Washington's wine.

"So, tabling my evil impulses for the moment. You mentioned you had something?"

[lycanprofessor]

"I do," said Washington with a nod, switching easily away from the flirting to the actual reason that they had come here. It felt like pushing Essie now was the easiest way to make her shut down from that sort of thing and looking at her in that sweater made him realize just how much he didn't want to shut that possibility down. Reaching into his jacket he brought out a folded up piece of paper and handed it to her.

"Since I wasn't having any luck I contacted to people who had held my position at the college before I had. One of them thought they remembered some old letters being sent to a museum in New York since there wasn't anything like that here at the time. I talked to a colleague there and they were able to track them down for me. They're being sent via special carrier but here's print out of one of the letters they had scanned. I thought maybe you could see if you recognized the handwriting so that we would know if we actually had something before they got here."

[wakingwakewood]

Taking the page, Essie looked it over. It was some kind of inventory, written as part of a letter. She couldn't make it all out, she wasn't great at reading old-timey handwriting, but it looked like it was a shipment of personal belongings being sent in anticipation of her family's exit from Siren Cove. The date was certainly right, and the handwriting looked vaguely familiar, like the oldest entries in the family grimoire.

"I'll have to take this home to really compare the handwriting, but the date matches when I was told the family left Siren Cove. Did he say anything about the rest of the letters?"

[lycanprofessor]

"She said it seemed to be letters back and forth between relatives. Normal stuff for the most part until at some part it talks about leaving the area," he explained, glad that it seemed to be useful or at least relevant information. It would have frustrated him if it were a bust so he could imagine how relieved Essie was.

"She offered to scan them all for me but I asked for the originals. I thought if nothing else you could do psychometry on them. If you want to keep them I'll help you state a claim."

[wakingwakewood]

"So long as there's nothing damaging, I'm happy letting the University keep them. I'm more curious than anything." Setting the letter aside, she tapped the table a bit restlessly.

"I came to the Cove because I have family here. I won't go into details, but it surprised me to find out I had blood that didn't want me dead or take my money. I always knew the family had lived here, way back when, but..." It was hard to describe, the growing feeling of the last few years. The need to know what really happened. Maybe it was because there was so little she remembered of her own life before the accident, she wanted a connection to some kind of past. "Now I have Isaac, I'm settled here, and I'm getting more into the modern family business, I guess I'm just looking for pieces of the old one. Grandy would tell me stories of the old family, but they were the same stories over and over, like... they were the safe ones. I dunno. I'd ask him for new ones, but it was the same ones over and over. That must sound pretty lame, right?"

[lycanprofessor]

"People talk about reporting history accurately a lot, but whatever stories we tell have to be tempered with the understanding of the audience," Washington said, taking a drink of his wine as a way to remind himself that he wasn't in a lecture hall at the moment. This wasn't history for Essie, this was personal.

"There's a reason we talk about Martin Luther King Jr before we talk about the Deacons for Defense and Justice, if we talk about the Deacons at all. It's hard to know when the right time is to tell the less than safe stories. Stories are like spells, they can be powerful things if the timing isn't right."

[wakingwakewood]

"And they don't exist in a vacuum, I understand all of that. But the truth is the truth, and that's what I'm after. Not everyone in the family is a saint, I get that. But I can't build my life in a blind and my family has some very old, long-standing grudges that I don't entirely understand."

The more information she had, good or ill, the safer she'd feel in making her own plans. She knew it was a function of luck that her family hadn't come calling yet. Luck and the knowledge that Grandy taught her every protection spell in the book. But castle walls only held for so long before someone saw them as a challenge, not a deterrent. Something - gut instinct, insight, paranoia, was driving her. There were gaps. She needed them filled.

[lycanprofessor]

"Well, I'll do what I can to help you find your truth," he promised her. It was easy to tell that this was important to her, very important, so it was more than just satisfying his own curiosity. It also seemed like it be dangerous in some way, so he would have to be careful too. Washington knew just how dangerous information from the past could be. Hopefully Essie would be able to handle herself. "Even if it does turn out to be dangerous."

[wakingwakewood]

"I'm sure it will be fine." Waving her hand, as if to ward off the very idea of a bad outcome, Essie forced a smile. She didn't want to bring the evening down with all the gloom and doom that surrounded her family. Not unless it became an issue, which she hoped it wouldn't.

"I do appreciate everything you're doing. And if there are any fees, please let me know. I don't even know how much digging all these old records up might cost, I"ve never done anything like this, but I will reimburse any cost. Or forward you funds if it becomes necessary." She didn't want him thinking that she was taking advantage.

[lycanprofessor]

"Mostly right now it costs in favors owed to me, but it's fine. I promise is it ever starts to cost actual money I'll talk to you about it," he said. Washington wasn't rich by any means but he wasn't hurting for money either. He also wasn't going to turn down someone willing to pay him for his work.

"It's not until you want me to start digging around in hostile countries to find ancient artifacts that it gets really expensive. But usually Uncle Sam foots the bill for that work."

[wakingwakewood]

"Seriously?" Essie found herself blinking a bit. It probably shouldn't surprise her, that the government invested in magical artifact retrieval. But at the same time, it was... okay, it was like a damn movie.

"I'm guessing that's a lot less glamorous than it sounds."

[lycanprofessor]

Washington couldn't help the slow smile spread across his face as Essie reacted to what he was saying. He loved it when he was able to work into conversation some of the things he did in his spare time.

"Oh, some of it is absolutely glamorous. I've been all over the world for the work. Most of it is just tedious and dusty, but some of it is glamorous," he said. "And for the record, I had absolutely no problem outrunning the boulder."

[wakingwakewood]

"I don't care about the boulder." Essie took a sip of her wine and fixed Washington with a wicked grin, "I'm much more interested in the fedora and the whip."

In truth, she was curious about all of it. Washington might seem like your standard handsome academic, but the more they talked, the more interested she became. She suspected he had many hidden talents, some that may be more useful in the long run than others.

[lycanprofessor]

"See, everyone remembers the fedora. They told me they were thinking about changing it to a panama hat but I told them it would just get too dirty," Washington said, giving her a broad grin. He liked that wicked smile of hers though, it filled his mind with all sorts of interesting thoughts.

"And the whip was mostly to scare away wild animals. It saw more use in the bedroom than in the jungle."

[wakingwakewood]

"Why Professor Jones, how un-scholastic." Leaning forward a little, Essie felt herself relax. This was more familiar territory, a more familiar dance, one without the spectre of her homicidal relatives hanging overhead. Did she feel a little guilty? Maybe, but she reminder herself again, she was single. She and Bach weren't... well, they weren't this. The guilt could hang, if it came back she'd deal with it later.

"I knew there was something about you I liked."